CFTC Arranges Public Bitcoin Hearing

It was announced by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission that a public meeting will be arranged.

Bitcoin and other digital currencies will be discussed in this meeting, to be held on 9 October 2014 in Washington, DC.

The US CFTC is an independent federal agency founded in 1975. It regulates all futures and options markets of the country.

The arranged meeting will be supervised by the agency’s Global Market Advisory Committee. This group’s advises the organisation on all matter related to the market competitiveness and integrity.

It was informed by the organizing party that the meeting will have 2 panels. One of the panels will focus on examining Bitcoin.

It will also answer questions about CFTC’s involvement with the creation of a derivatives market for the digital currency. The other panel will focus on Non-Deliverable Forwards, which is a form of cash settled short-term forward contract.

The full release made it clear that the event will be open for the public to attend. It was written in a statement that the members of the public may also listen to the meeting through conference call via domestic and international toll-free telephone number. This will help them connect to a live, listen-only audio feed.

The agency’s recent involvement with Bitcoin will probably include only basic questions although there are still many larger questions about the popular digital currency’s classification as a commodity or currency.

Very similar introductory hearing that were held by the New York Department of Financial Services and the US Conference of State Bank Supervisors discussed about educating member of each agency about the basics of the new technology.

Only recently, these agencies are taking further steps into the Bitcoin World.

There remains a regulatory uncertainty about the crypto currency. Even with the ongoing debate, the meeting could mark the advancement toward more clarity for the bitcoin industry.

The CFTC has recently been involved publicly in discussions where it was discussed if bitcoin meets the characterization of a commodity under the CFTC’s rules.

This was since March when TeraExchange moved to secure the CFTC’s approval for its recently launched Bitcoin derivative.

Mark Wetjen, acting CFTC chairman of the time, directed that the group was seeking the internal answer to the question.

In conference held in March, Wetjen said that the analysis hadn’t concluded. He shared his opinion that people believe Bitcoin has strong reasons to be considered as a commodity.